@speeny:I think it can be difficult to tell if a particular game is one you will have the time for, be interested enough to want to play once you buy it, and have enough originality or wow factor.
When I think back over some of my purchases on the Switch, I think it can be difficult to really categorize which games were and weren't worth the buy for me.
I haven't played Wargroove as much as I would like, but I think that was a good buy because it's so dang close to the Advance Wars games that I loved years ago and I could see myself working on it again despite being stuck on that same level for about a year now lol. Katana Zero was probably a very good purchase also, but I reached this point close to the end where I just got stuck and haven't ever gone back and finished it. Both Steamworld Dig games are simply great.
A lot of games are kind of in-between. I think Hotline Miami Collection was a great purchase because I was playing that a lot when I got it, but one thing that is kind of missing in the transition to the Switch are achievements/trophies (except they are kind of built into the second game) which would have added some more value or challenge to the game. I am glad that Ori and the Blind Forest came to the Switch, but I question if buying it was the right decision for me since I haven't sat and played it on the Switch yet and purchased it digitally on the XBox One years ago, so if I get that again one day I would likely prefer that version.
I love me some Overwatch, and it is cool that it runs on the Switch. It's just noticeably not as good as it was on the Xbox One, is missing the achievements, and frequently crashes on me because of my unpredictable Internet connection where I live now. And I have no doubt the Shovel Knight Treasure Trove was a fantastic value when I bought it at Switch launch, I just haven't been compelled to work on it since I got my newer Switch system, even with all of the recent free updates.
But then I've got countless games that I wonder about. I really loved the demo of Deltarune, and I was sort of enjoying Undertale when I got it... But then my feelings about Undertale are kind of mixed and I haven't felt like sitting down to play it. Untitled Goose Game I bought on a whim, and it's funny and novel, but I don't feel like touching it again. Okami, I question whether I'll want to sit and play again. But heck, even big releases like Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Fire Emblem 3 Houses and Pokemon Shield I'm surprised at how mixed my feelings are about them. Pokemon Shield might actually be the biggest disappointment in a major game series ever.
I think it is hard for me to make a plan about how to spend, and to predict what I will want to play. And even with reviews and previews of games I still don't always know quite what I'm getting myself into.
@mrbojangles25: Hey, don't apologize for having a lot to say about an issue. Look at the block of text I just responded to Speeny with lol. I think you make some good points.
Yeah there is something to say about a game having a clear-cut ending, or offering fun replay value. I think the biggest thing is cutting out the "bloat".
I think a lot of games kind of teeter this fine-line between cleverness and un-originality though. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Adventure mode gives me very mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is a lot of play-time there, and it's kind of cool seeing which character choices and handicaps they used to represent certain characters. (Seeing an orange Dr. Mario with an army of tiny Solid Snakes represent CO Andy from Advance Wars was just brilliant, Imo.) But the gameplay can get boring and repetitive and tedious quick, and stickers feel like a real gimmick. And on another note, the game is such a mixed bag because the only way to play it with friends online is to make "rooms" you enter codes to join, thereby nullifying a huge part of the multiplayer-with-friends. Let's not get started on how many of the characters feel like clones or old hat.
My mind kind of goes back to games like Trenched! (Iron Brigade) and RISK: Factions on the 360. These had short campaigns, but were a ton of fun. Trenched didn't have a ton of replay value, but you would certainly replay some stages. RISK Factions had plenty of replay value, and I'm still stunned it was removed from the library. I will sit and play the RISK game on my smartphone sometimes and it's pretty fun, but I still wonder to this day why they completely did away with the unique gameplay features that existed in that game.
I feel like new Halo games almost always met my standards. The campaigns are usually just long enough that you can have a lengthy play-through alone or co-op, and the achievements and hidden goodies and easter eggs really make for a deep and re-playable adventure, on top of the way check-points already drastically changed the way each play through would go down. The multiplayer is always loaded with great fun all-around.
I obviously enjoy long adventures too since I like World of Warcraft Classic, but even that inevitably had a point where you could do everything - minor quests and all - and the only thing that might add replay value (aside from new characters) is things like battlegrounds, arena, vs, and maxxing out your avatar with the best possible loot and augments. I won't really touch modern WoW anymore though because it reached a point where most quests just became push-over and not very fun as the game skewed to focus on the newest high-level content. I think Skyrim is pretty great from what I played, and maybe the thing about that game is, you aren't really expected to do everything in a single playthrough? Idk.
My issue with a lot of small, indie games becomes that the purchases can really go either way, and in a lot of cases they are tied to your account and just kind of take up space in your library. I still think Costume Quest was a great game, and worth the ten or fifteen bucks I spent on that back in the day. But even with a game as good as that it becomes kind of a paperweight after you've played through it once or twice.
Card Crawl was one game I bought on my phone that was kind of fun and had replay value. Bloons TD5 is always great also, but the problem is I almost always want to play RISK if I play anything on my phone lol. And then there are stinkers like Chroma Squad and Cat Quest that I regret tremendously. Let's not even speak of that whole Pokemon Go *cough*money-sink*cough* thing...
Annnnd another wall of text, sorry lol.
@RSM-HQ: And you were absolutely right about Pokemon Sword and Shield. But it can be just so difficult to convey that idea to people without them playing it themselves and understanding exactly what you're talking about. I don't think a Pokemon game has ever felt THAT lifeless before. And it took a few hours of playtime (I think I put in close to two days' worth of playtime just catching tons of stuff in the wild and whatnot) to really have everything likable about the game gradually kind of wear off and snap me into reality. Like we have reached this point where spin-off Pokemon games might actually be getting better than the main-series games. And like you, I don't really see myself playing a new Pokemon game again unless it's more like gen 1 - gen 4, or drastically different from the present offerings.
Even Fire Emblem somehow managed to screw up its Switch debut by throwing away the weapons triad and turning the game into an anxiety-ridden search-and-converse fest. I like it certainly more than Pokemon Shield, but there's no denying it's not really as good as a lot of the older games.
Your principle about having the time for a game, and about a game having gameplay that is fun and not stale regardless of length and replay value, hits home.
Every year I keep going around in circles and kind of reach this point where I'm unsatisfied with my game collections. And maybe that's the problem - that I'm building collections. I have a buddy who only buys like a few games for the life of every game system he purchases, and I think he's probably got the right idea. He waits for the big ones, the games that kind of define a generation. Of course I know I also like more quirky and experimental games than him, and so sometimes it comes down to taking a chance on something different - and that either pays off or doesn't.
This year I haven't made any game purchases yet, aside from buying another month of WoW Classic. I think things might stay that way for a while. I've been thinking about making some life changes and moving away, and I don't really know how that would impact things yet in the long run but I suspect it could be a while before I decide to buy any other games. (Aside from WoW time, perhaps.) I have an idea of some future games I might like to play, but for now Idk what the plan is. Maybe your idea of sticking to a set number of purchases for the entire year is a smart one.
@thereal25: The dreaded backlog! I think that is my downfall a little bit. Like I mentioned a bit in some of these other responses, I have this habit of trying to "collect" all of these games that seem interesting to me, and don't always have the time or interest then. And I have this problem of deciding what system to purchase a game on, since I seem to buy a new system like every year or two, and there are pros and cons to getting it for Switch or XBox One, for example, or even the PC or smartphone.
Something I did a little last year, since I was away from the Switch for so long and returned to owning one again, was I went back through and read up on the "essential" games people recommended buying for it. And in a way that was smart because it pointed me in the direction of great games like Steamworld Dig 2. But then I have to use my own judgment a bit too, and I guess that's difficult when you're debating whether to give a port of an older game a try because it's available again, and you can play it in handheld mode as well as on the television. There's a lot of little factors to consider, and I always end up screwing it up.
Pushing on into my 30's, I am reaching a point where I am actually leaning towards digital games over buying physical, but at the same time I don't want to waste my time on digital games I won't enjoy. Monthly services like Game Pass seem like options I might be more willing to embrace nowadays, and I see where Apple and Google might be onto something with their streaming services eventually. But streaming still feels like an ugly word, and I would much prefer to download games I play, at least.
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